Casual games are still blossoming like a rose on Kickstarter. It's great to see so many great projects, yet it's becoming more and more difficult to narrow them down to our top picks. When we first started putting together this list, we had to dig long and hard just to find a few good casual games to include — now there are so many that we couldn't possibly include them all.
Our picks for September 2013 include games about monsters, cavemen, art museums, mobsters, royalty, fancy parties, and more.
Smash Monster Rampage (5th Street Games) – A giant monster is running amok in your city, destroying everything in its path. Players must cooperate to take the monster down and protect innocent bystanders from injury. Deploy tanks and helicopters to open fire on the monster and get closer to victory, but watch out for his counterattacks!
Give It to the King! (The Flux Capacity) – Give It to the King! is a fun casual game that you don't want to miss! Players race down the corridor trying to be the first to arrive at the King's throne to deliver their messages in exchange for gold. We recently had the chance to play it — read our preview article here. The project is fully funded, but is now seeking support to unlock to some really nice game components.
CUBIST (Gryphon Games) – In CUBIST, players compete to build the best installations in a modern art museum. The installations are 3-dimensional structures constructed with 6-sided dice, following certain rules (adjacent dice must be one higher or lower and stacked dice must be the same number). Players score points for completing installations and for adding their own dice to the museum structure. Famous artists can also be enlisted to grant special abilities. CUBIST looks like a unique and fascinating game that I am very interested in playing.
Stack & Attack (EGRA Games) – In Stack & Attack, players take on the role of cavemen trying to build the highest tower to earn the favor of their gods. Cards representing various sizes of flat and round rocks are either stacked up to form a tower (using a unique stacking mechanism) or launched at other players' towers to wreak havoc.
Belle of the Ball (Dice Hate Me Games) – Belle of the Ball is a game designed by casual game designer and blogger Daniel Solis (who recently shared some of his design tips in Casual Game Insider). In the game, players are party hosts who are trying to invite the best mix of guests to make their gala the greatest by the end of the night. The artwork looks fantastic and I have no doubt this game will have great production value.
Codinca (BackSpindle) – In Codinca, players rearrange double-sided tiles representing earth, wind, fire, and water to match certain patterns. Tiles are different colors on the front and back, which are taken into account in each pattern. On a turn, a player must swap the position of one of his own tiles with an adjacent tile, then flip any tile on the board. It is also possible to purchase a limited number of more complex actions that affect more tiles at once.
Capo dei Capi (Dr. Finn's Games) – In Capo dei Capi ("Boss of the Bosses"), you are a gangster of the prohibition era in New York City, trying to gain control of many different aspects of the city (e.g., police, mayor, nightclubs, etc.). In this 2-player dice game, each player presses his luck by rolling the dice and placing influence and bribe tokens on the different areas, as well as value cubes that alter each area's value. Continuing to roll for too long may cause the player to bust and lose his progress for the turn.
RARRR!! (APE Games) – Continuing with the giant monster theme, this card game allows players to draft a customized monster from 3 different cards, as well as a hand of power cards associated with that monster. Players then duke it out with each other by bidding their power cards to take over various cities and earn victory points. Looks like it could be a fun game, albeit with a bit of mental math required to determine the total value of the power cards.
SNAFU (Zafty) – In the 60-second party game category, SNAFU seems to be a fun twist on real-time trading games like Pit. Players frantically trade cards with each other, cooperating to gather sets of cards of the same suit, while also taking on certain personas or rules. For instance, one player may have to act like he has T-Rex arms while another player may have to lie about everything. To win, players must gather the required sets before the 60-second timer runs out.
Disclaimer: unless otherwise noted, we have not seen or played any of the above games. Our assessment of each is based on the information given on the crowdfunding project page.
